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The range of four lines from Quex Foods reflects the diverse flavours and landscapes of Kent:

• Cheese from Canterbury,
• Cider from Biddenden,
• Oysters from Whitstable
• Salt from the coastline

All the above are ingredients in Kent Crisps which were launched at Quex Park Estate, Birchington

The four flavours now on the market are

• oyster and vinegar,
• Ashmore cheese and onion,
• Biddenden cider vinegar,
• sea salt.

The cider vinegar is produced at Bidden Vineyards – Kent’s oldest.

Cider Brandy

An award-winning Devon cider maker has started making a new cider brandy. After five years of patient waiting for the potent drink to mature in barrels, Yarde Real Drink has now come out with its own brandy.

Yarde Real Devon Cider Brandy

Yarde Real Devon Cider Brandy is understood to be the first apple cider brandy to be produced in Devon. Husband and wife cider makers, Paul Gadd and Rebecca Jack, said the brandy had been a long time coming but had been worth the wait. Mrs Jack said distilling cider into Calvados-like brandy had been a natural extension of their cider and juice business.

Every year we set aside one barrel of our cider to distill into brandy. The first year we sent our cider to the distillers, they sent us back a sample. It was like fire water. But after five years of slowly maturing in oak barrels it has become quite smooth. It’s very nice and is best drunk after dinner like any good brandy.

The cider brandy, made from the aromatic juice of Devon cider apples, is first fermented into cider and then double distilled through old Calvados stills.

The couple produce only 800 bottles of brandy and 1,500 gallons of cider every year which is the cider company’s legal duty limit.

This year’s Cider Apple crop

We are extremely excited about this. As far as we are aware it’s the only Devon cider brandy on the market. It’s been a long time in the making, lots of people have been very patient but it’s definitely been worth the wait. It’s generating a great deal of interest.

Just looking at the orchard across the road, there are already small apples on the trees. We’ve been lucky with the blossoms. We avoided any frost and strong wind. It’s looking pretty good. The rain will have helped. We had some sunshine in June, rain in July now we’d be happy with some more sunshine to concentrate the sugar in the fruits. Last year we had a good crop. We should have another good one this year.

Cider Brandy Online

Yarde RealDrink was among the first producers to introduce ‘provenance’ or place of origin to their range of products, naming orchards of origin on their labels. They
also offer a wide range of premium juices, cordials and ciders, all made with fresh local fruit and flowers grown and harvested in traditional orchards and hedgerows around the South Hams and Torbay areas of Devon.

The very first bottles of the limited five-year-old 40 per cent ABV cider brandy were available to buy at the Yarde RealDrink stand in the Food Hall at this year’s Totnes Show, back in July, and a small quantity of cider brandy is planned to be made available to buy online.

Licences to make Cider Brandy in the UK are severely limited, with The Cider Museum at Hereford being granted a licence in 1984.

The first written records of Cider Brandy in the UK go back to 1678.

The Somerset Cider Brandy Company at Burrow Hill also claims to have the first full cider distilling licence in recorded history, granted in 1989, so Yarde Real Drink is now either the proud holder of only the third such licence to distill cider brandy in the UK, or else they are making use of one of the other two licensed distillers to get their own cider made into cider brandy and then matured on their own premises.

Makers of fine fare gathered around the Market House between 11am and 4pm, and among the local traders taking part were Café Français at Sez, Llandinabo Farm Shop, Once upon a Tree cider and apple juice, and Just Rachel ice cream.

Visitors sampled cheese, sausages, pies, bread, vegetables, fruit and hand-made chocolates, and tasted the apple juice, cider, perry and wines on offer too.